We use it to high-speed all of our SQL Servers.
Helpdesk Supervisor at a logistics company with 501-1,000 employees
Significant increase in boot speed of our SQL Servers has notably reduced downtime
Pros and Cons
- "Being all-flash makes everything super-fast. It's also great to manage. That's the easiest part. We also have another SAN, from Pure, and the Unity is easier to manage than the Pure."
What is our primary use case?
How has it helped my organization?
It increased the boot speed on our SQL Servers. It made downtimes incredibly small compared to when we had them on normal spinning disk. Back then, it would take two or three minutes to boot up. Now, on all-flash, it's 25 to 30 seconds. So it has improved downtime, if we have to reboot a server, which is something we do a lot.
We used to have Exchange on it but we've put that in the cloud so it's no longer on a solution. When we did have it, it was faster because it wasn't on spinning disks. It helped us with that.
What is most valuable?
Being all-flash makes everything super-fast.
It's also great to manage. That's the easiest part. We also have another SAN, from Pure, and the Unity is easier to manage than the Pure.
What needs improvement?
Support and licensing are big things, in the end, that needs improvement.
Buyer's Guide
Dell Unity XT
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Dell Unity XT. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It's very stable. We have not had any issues with it since we put it in. We've had one drive fail in two years. It was easily replaced, a hot swap and done. It has been incredibly easy and been stable for two years.
How are customer service and support?
We have used technical support and I would rate them a massive zero. I put in a ticket, although my preferred contact method is a call. I never receive a call. I send it to my sales engineer, my sales engineer sends it to their manager, the manager tells the guy to give me a call, and he sends me an email. That's not my preferred contact method and, even when complaining, I still get an email.
Also, when I put in a ticket and say, "Here are our logs," they don't read the logs. It even says to do so in the ticket, but they skim over it. Their support has been pretty bad since they became Dell EMC. EMC used to be good. Dell has been horrible forever. I think it's going down that road.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We were using the VNX and the IBM V7000. We needed to move to a new solution because they were slow. There was a little bit of flash in the VNX, and some in the V7000, but the all-flash was just such an improvement that we decided we needed to go to the Unity.
When looking to work with a vendor, the important criteria we look for are nothing too pushy, and having a good relationship, and a continued relationship. It's not good when they just sell and leave. It's always good to continue that communication, make sure we have everything we need.
What was our ROI?
The fact that it reduces our downtime gives us incredible cost savings. Our industry is agriculture. We do market trading. Seconds are everything that matters. That minute, or the few minutes, that we save can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars. If that happens in the middle of the day, since we are trading constantly, reducing the amount of time that it takes, when something goes down, to get back up is cost savings.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Licensing is a little bit confusing. Going through everything with them, there are a lot of line items to go over. Every single thing is broken down into a line item, and it starts to get really confusing in terms of what we're actually purchasing when it comes to the product.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We looked at Pure. Unity beat out Pure.
What other advice do I have?
Make sure you have all your ducks in a row when you finish. Make sure they understand the type of support that you want, make sure the licensing is clear, make sure it has all the features you want.
The purchasing process was actually incredibly easy. We had a vendor to go through. She was able to clear everything up. When we were trying to look at it ourselves, it was a little bit convoluted. But once we had her help explain it through, it became easier.
They have a good product. It's great for what it does. The surrounding pieces are where everything gets tricky.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Manager IT at a financial services firm
All-flash performance, Snapshotting, Replication, less management are key for us
Pros and Cons
- "All-flash performance, Snapshotting capabilities and replication are all valuable features."
- "I think there are a couple of things on the file side that we're lacking from the VNX world. It would be nice if we got some of those back. I think there are limitations on how many file systems you can back up at a time. Whereas you can do, I believe, eight continuous per data mover on the file side on the VNX, you can only do something like two or four on Unity. If they could step up to that, that would be good."
What is our primary use case?
Primary use case is block and file. It's like a combo device. It has performed well, except for the migration process.
How has it helped my organization?
It requires a lot less management.
What is most valuable?
- All-flash performance
- Snapshotting capabilities
- Replication
It's good. It has a lot of good features.
What needs improvement?
I think there are a couple of things on the file side that we're lacking from the VNX world. It would be nice if we got some of those back. I think there are limitations on how many file systems you can back up at a time. Whereas you can do, I believe, eight continuous per data mover on the file side on the VNX, you can only do something like two or four on Unity. If they could step up to that, that would be good.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It was difficult at first. It wasn't very stable. It was crashing a lot. I think we were early adopters and, during the file side of migration, it crashed a number of times.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
Scalability is good, although we only have a 400F. I think we missed out on getting the 450, but it seems to be fairly scalable.
How is customer service and technical support?
Tech support is good. Just like most of the EMC products, there is a knowledgeable staff.
How was the initial setup?
Setup was fairly straightforward, although we had EMC onsite to give us a hand.
What other advice do I have?
The important criteria for us when selecting a vendor are
- relationship
- quality of product.
I would rate the Unity between seven and eight out of 10. It's not quite at the level of what the VNX was, but it's one of those products that is improving with time.
I would definitely recommend you look at Unity.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Buyer's Guide
Dell Unity XT
November 2024
Learn what your peers think about Dell Unity XT. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: November 2024.
814,763 professionals have used our research since 2012.
Solution Architect - Data Center at a tech consulting company with 51-200 employees
Our customers find it easy to use, the speed is a big improvement over what they had
Pros and Cons
- "For our customers, it's the simplicity of it. They find it easy to use, along with the added features, the dynamic volumes."
- "They should have more wizards for customers so they can do more of the self-service types of functions, in terms of upgrades and patching, although it's pretty easy right now."
What is our primary use case?
Most of our customers are using it for Microsoft workloads, like SQL Server, Exchange, on-premise use. We have one customer running Oracle on it, all-flash.
They find the performance amazing from what they're coming from. Some of them say it's blazingly fast. They've switched to all-flash.
How has it helped my organization?
The whole cycle of provisioning and acquisition has been simplified for our customers. Also, the deployment and general maintenance of it has been greatly simplified. It has cut into our professional services quite a bit.
What is most valuable?
For our customers, it's the simplicity of it. They find it easy to use, along with the added features, the dynamic volumes. Things like that have been a big improvement over past generations.
What needs improvement?
The features they have added have been great, they've greatly simplified it. Bigger, faster. They're always leap-frogging, so the next generation, I'm sure, will have newer processors in it. They have improved leaps and bounds on the interface and ease of use, and I would like to see them keep doing that.
They should have more wizards for customers so they can do more of the self-service types of functions, in terms of upgrades and patching, although it's pretty easy right now.
Also, I would like to see more migration tools. When we're putting the Unity in, I would like to see more capability to migrate from third-party storage platforms, competitive platforms. Migrating from their own platforms is pretty straightforward.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We've had no issues. The customers talk to us before they do an upgrade and we say, "Yeah, it should be no problem." They go ahead and do it themselves now, and there have been no outages or unplanned downtime.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
There have been no scalability issues with our customer base. Our customers are maybe, at most, a few hundred terabytes, so scalability is not an issue.
How is customer service and technical support?
Before they do an upgrade, our customers will talk to us and they will also talk to Dell EMC support. From what I know, our customers are very happy with the support they receive from Dell EMC.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is straightforward.
What other advice do I have?
I can't give any product a 10 out of 10. But I'm happy with it, I'd give it an eight out of 10. It has been a good product for us in terms of selling it, keeping the customer community happy.
My advice would be, download the virtual edition of Unity and try it out. Get used to the interface and ease of use. Also, take a look at the cloud-based analytics and the other pieces that go with it, to round out the solution.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
Infrastructure Engineer at CGSH
All-flash array gives me hope it will do a good job, but the compression algorithm has issues
Pros and Cons
- "There are some features in VNX that I wish were in the Unity. For example, Storage Groups for isolating LANs and hosts. That is a big issue."
- "We've also encountered an issue when it comes to migrating to compressed LANs on the Unity, and during the Storage vMotion. It appears that the compression algorithm is overwhelmed, and when it becomes overwhelmed it just stops compressing and writes the raw data to the destination. We later copied internally another Storage vMotion to another compressed LAN and achieved much higher compressions on that internal copy. It would be really nice if there was a way to automatically throttle, as a part of a Storage vMotion, to say, "I want to gain the maximum benefits from the compression algorithm, so throttle back the Storage vMotion to implement 100 percent compression.""
What is our primary use case?
It's a replacement for a VNX, it's faster. It has its good points, and it has its bad points.
How has it helped my organization?
I don't think it's providing any great enhancements over the existing platform.
What needs improvement?
There are some features in VNX that I wish were in the Unity. Storage Groups for isolating LANs and hosts. That is a big issue.
We've also encountered an issue when it comes to migrating to compressed LANs on the Unity, and during the Storage vMotion. It appears that the compression algorithm is overwhelmed, and when it becomes overwhelmed it just stops compressing and writes the raw data to the destination. We later copied internally another Storage vMotion to another compressed LAN and achieved much higher compressions on that internal copy. It would be really nice if there was a way to automatically throttle, as a part of a Storage vMotion, to say, "I want to gain the maximum benefits from the compression algorithm, so throttle back the Storage vMotion to implement 100 percent compression."
My colleague has done most of the migration work, but he's also encountered a few other issues in terms of the integration with vCenter.
It's a box that has a lot of promise, and it was a very shiny new "sports car" when we got it. It has a few dents and scratches in it. That "new car pride," we don't go out and wash it every weekend now. Some of that reality has kicked in.
I still have expectations, it's an all-flash array, while our VNX, obviously, is not. So we do anticipate, once we've completed the migration and get more experienced with it and maybe with some code upgrades, improvements to some of the attributes, that it will do a good job for us.
For how long have I used the solution?
One to three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We went from the VNX, where we had about 900 spinning disks, to 27 solid-state disks. There have been no failures in the last year.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
It had better scale, it costs a lot of money. I definitely think it will. Also, my hope, being that it is solid-state, is that the ongoing maintenance costs will be reduced, on the off chance that our firm might not want to replace it after five years.
How is customer service and technical support?
Tech support is good. We've always had our struggles over the years with their support. I characterize their level-one support as being somewhat questionable. But if stuff hits the fan and you have to get up to level two or three, you have a priority-one, they always come through.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Senior Implementation Engineer at a tech company with 501-1,000 employees
The most valuable features are FAST cache capabilities and Data at Rest Encryption.
What is most valuable?
- Fully automated storage tiering (FAST) cache capabilities. This allows some FLASH drives to be used to improve the overall performance and reduce the cost of the array versus an all flash or old style spinning disk array.
- Data at Rest Encryption (D@RE). This feature MUST be enabled after the purchase of the array. It has very little impact on performance and does not affect any of the functionality of the array. We advise always including D@RE on the arrays. You need to consider this upon ordering the array.
What needs improvement?
The lack of deduplication reduces some of the competitiveness compared to other products. The unity platform does not use data deduplication. This is a data-reduction technology to save space on the array.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have used it for three months
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
I did not encounter any stability issues.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I have not yet encountered any scalability issues.
How is customer service and technical support?
I would give technical support a rating of 7/10, given recent issues that arose.
During the merger process with Dell, many of the cases were handled out of India with less expertise than in the past.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is very straightforward. There is a wizard that guides you through the process.
Licensing would be easier if it would be more automated. The current process slows the installation as you have to go and get the license from EMC in the middle of the deployment.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
Pricing seems very competitive. A majority of the required options come with the base licenses.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
DIrecteur Commerical at a tech vendor with 51-200 employees
Highly reliable, effective dynamic cache feature, and simple setup
Pros and Cons
- "The most valuable feature is the dynamic cache of this product. It is very important. We have the physical cache and we can boost this cache using disks. All the products are mainly flash now and this is one of the main characteristics which our customers like."
- "I have a problem because between the Unity XT and the PowerMax, sometimes we need another product between these two products. There could be better integrated and the capacity of the size could be larger."
What is our primary use case?
We can use Dell EMC Unity XT for backing up SAN and NAS drives. Mainly for databases and for file servers.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is the dynamic cache of this product. It is very important. We have the physical cache and we can boost this cache using disks. All the products are mainly flash now and this is one of the main characteristics which our customers like.
What needs improvement?
I have a problem because between the Unity XT and the PowerMax, sometimes we need another product between these two products. There could be better integrated and the capacity of the size could be larger.
In the future, if NVMe disc could be used on the Dell EMC Unity XT it would be beneficial.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Dell EMC Unity XT for approximately three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Dell EMC Unity XT is very reliable. I used to use legacy EMC products, such as VNX. This product has a long story.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution is suitable for Medium-sized companies. When you talk large, it's relative. Our customers here in Algeria are the largest here but they are only medium-sized compared to other countries.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support is good. Opening the ticket, the management of the ticket is good. However, when we have to use or change parts, it can be more difficult because of the customs rules of the disposability and availability of the parts. We have problems delivering them in the time the parts are needed in some cases.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
We previously used Fujitsu and IBM products.
When comparing Dell and IBM they are very similar. Fujitsu is a good product too. However, when comparing them all in their strengths for implementation, the lifecycle of the product, and the support they provide, I would rank Dell number one, IBM second, and third would be Fujitsu.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is simple. The time it takes for the implementation depends. From scratch, a new implementation takes approximately three days. If you have to migrate a node storage array, the time can increase, I am not able to give an exact time because it depends on the volume and the nature of the data. We can take one week to three weeks to migrate. However, generally, it takes approximately 10 days when we have to migrate and without migration, it's about two and three days.
What about the implementation team?
We provide implementation service to our customers.
The maintenance is done by the Dell representative in our country.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution is very expensive.
There are a lot of advantages with EMC Unity XT, there's no limitation. When you bought the product, the software is included and there's no limitation of the terabyte in the licenses.
What other advice do I have?
I would firmly recommend this solution to others.
I rate Dell EMC Unity XT a nine out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: reseller
ESRS works with remote support to remote in and take a look at problems proactively
Pros and Cons
- "It is nice the way ESRS works with remote support, being able to remote in and take a look at problems proactively."
- "It is easy to manage. A lot of the system manages itself."
- "I would like to see more integration with other products."
- "The interface can be a little challenging for someone new."
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use it for backup.
How has it helped my organization?
It is a good backup product.
What is most valuable?
- It is easy to manage. A lot of the system manages itself.
- It is nice the way ESRS works with remote support, being able to remote in and take a look at problems proactively.
What needs improvement?
- I would like to see more integration with other products.
- The interface can be a little challenging for someone new.
For how long have I used the solution?
Less than one year.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
It is pretty reliable.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
You can just add nodes and shelves to it.
How is customer service and technical support?
The remote support is excellent.
We had a case automatically opened last night, and it is being handled.
What other advice do I have?
Dell EMC has been around for a long time. Owning VMware is a big plus.
Most important criteria when selecting a vendor:
- Support long-term
- Longevity
- Cost is always an issue.
Disclosure: I am a real user, and this review is based on my own experience and opinions.
Managing Partner at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Fast cache in the hybrid storage has increased my client's performance
Pros and Cons
- "The performance combined with the gig-per-dollar value is a combination that is superior to other storage options."
What is our primary use case?
General storage for virtual machines. The virtual machines have different roles, essential roles; and, of course, mission-critical servers running financial services, or engineering programs, etc.
How has it helped my organization?
I have a client that jumped from the stone age to hybrid. They do enjoy the hybrid storage, the fast cache, etc. It has greatly improved their performance, absolutely. The customer is really happy about it.
What is most valuable?
It is the performance combined with the Gig-per-dollar value. That combination is superior to other storage options.
What needs improvement?
All the features that the client has, the client has really enjoyed them.
One thing they could do is lower the price point. There are other storage products that are available from Dell, the SE series for example. The client is comparing the Unity and the SE3000 for example, the SE is cheaper.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
So far so good. No issues with stability.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I'm sure scalability will be fine. It will be great. But the client has not reached the point of needing to increase the capacity, or other features, yet.
How is customer service and technical support?
So far technical support is very reliable, it's very good that way. We haven't engaged tech support so far, but when did the deployment we did have Dell EMC come in and provide deployment services, and that went through pretty well.
How was the initial setup?
We picked Dell deployment services, so it was very straightforward. The Dell technician came in on time and then, according to the survey that the client filled out earlier - it was great. The client was impressed.
What other advice do I have?
I give it an eight out of 10 and the two missing points are because of the price tag.
In terms of advice, I would definitely recommend Dell solutions. As for Unity, it depends on the budget. I definitely recommend Unity, because I do have clients that are currently using it, and they don't have any issues, they're happy with the product.
Disclosure: My company has a business relationship with this vendor other than being a customer: Partner.
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Updated: November 2024
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